I will be visiting FNQ later this year so a lot of information in this thread is really useful. I appreciate you writing all of this.
The traveling Najade is traveling - FNQ... And A Day
- Thread starter Najade
- Start date
I want to go back to Queensland 
It's been a decade since I was there, and back then there wasn't quite as much information on where to see mammals, so I never saw most of the possums @Najade has done.
I saw Green Ringtail and Coppery Brushtail, but not the Lemuroid or Herbert River Ringtails or Striped Possum. I even missed Cassowary but that was through simple bad luck.
It's been a decade since I was there, and back then there wasn't quite as much information on where to see mammals, so I never saw most of the possums @Najade has done.
I saw Green Ringtail and Coppery Brushtail, but not the Lemuroid or Herbert River Ringtails or Striped Possum. I even missed Cassowary but that was through simple bad luck.
Day 8
Kuranda Koala Gardens
For the species list see here.
My main reason for going was that @AWP had put the information out there that they are supposed to have a Marbled Frogmouth* in their nocturnal house.
The place isn't super-big but has a couple of nice species that are hard to see in other places: David Fleay's Mahogany was bts last time I was there and the ones at Wildlife Habitat you will only see on the nocturnal tour. I haven't been to WILDLIFE Hamilton Island but you probably won't see the Northern Bettongs at Wildlife Habitat (not even during the nocturnal tour, which is a bit of a shame) or Daintree Wild Zoo. So if you can you should put this one on your itinerary.
After paying your entry fee of $19 (there's also multiple attraction passes if you wanna combine this one with some other zoos I didn't go to) you make your way via bridge over the crocodile pond past a couple terrariums and a turtle exhibit towards the obligatory Koala photo area. The Koalas on the right hand side share an enclosure with Potoroos, the ones on the left hand side with Quokkas. You then walk past a couple of Wombat enclosures into a walk-through macropod enclosure (feed is provided for free). Coming out you have the nocturnal house on your right hand side as well as a couple more terrariums and another (daylight) glider enclosure. Squirrel Glider on the left, Mahogany Glider (and Bandicoot) on the right for comparison.
I went early morning and pretty much saw everything except Ringtail and Bandicoot on the first go. In the afternoon I put in a quick stint to the Australian Venom Zoo across the road (species list in the same thread as above). Basically: don't go.
After that I went back to KKG for the 2pm Nocturnal Wonders tour (food got the Ringtail to wake up) and the 2:30pm Marsupial presentation (probably your only shot to see NB Bandicoot here).
Animals checked off my list:
Mahogany Glider
Northern Bettong
I called BatReach but it wasn't open the whole time I was up north.
After a bit of car trouble I made my way to Port Douglas.
Next up: Wildlife Habitat
Kuranda Koala Gardens
For the species list see here.
My main reason for going was that @AWP had put the information out there that they are supposed to have a Marbled Frogmouth* in their nocturnal house.
The place isn't super-big but has a couple of nice species that are hard to see in other places: David Fleay's Mahogany was bts last time I was there and the ones at Wildlife Habitat you will only see on the nocturnal tour. I haven't been to WILDLIFE Hamilton Island but you probably won't see the Northern Bettongs at Wildlife Habitat (not even during the nocturnal tour, which is a bit of a shame) or Daintree Wild Zoo. So if you can you should put this one on your itinerary.
After paying your entry fee of $19 (there's also multiple attraction passes if you wanna combine this one with some other zoos I didn't go to) you make your way via bridge over the crocodile pond past a couple terrariums and a turtle exhibit towards the obligatory Koala photo area. The Koalas on the right hand side share an enclosure with Potoroos, the ones on the left hand side with Quokkas. You then walk past a couple of Wombat enclosures into a walk-through macropod enclosure (feed is provided for free). Coming out you have the nocturnal house on your right hand side as well as a couple more terrariums and another (daylight) glider enclosure. Squirrel Glider on the left, Mahogany Glider (and Bandicoot) on the right for comparison.
I went early morning and pretty much saw everything except Ringtail and Bandicoot on the first go. In the afternoon I put in a quick stint to the Australian Venom Zoo across the road (species list in the same thread as above). Basically: don't go.
After that I went back to KKG for the 2pm Nocturnal Wonders tour (food got the Ringtail to wake up) and the 2:30pm Marsupial presentation (probably your only shot to see NB Bandicoot here).
Animals checked off my list:
Mahogany Glider
Northern Bettong
I called BatReach but it wasn't open the whole time I was up north.
After a bit of car trouble I made my way to Port Douglas.
Next up: Wildlife Habitat
When I went up it was for a long weekend a few years back. I stayed at Kingfisher Park but the rain was bucketing down the night I was there so there was no nocturnal tour. However I went up Mt Lewis with a local guide and saw several of the FNQ endemics, plus Bluefaced Parrotfinch. Cattana Wetlands, just north of Cairns, also held some lifers for me.
Next time I go back I'll spend longer there, and this thread has given me some ideas of where to stay (I've not heard of some of these lodges).
Hix
Next time I go back I'll spend longer there, and this thread has given me some ideas of where to stay (I've not heard of some of these lodges).
Hix
*Having put the issue of IDing the Frogmouth in question to the experts on facebook I'm not sure that it actually is a Marbled. The facebook discussion went from Marbled to Tawny to Marbled to finally settle on Papuan (which I took it for on the day as well because it looked like the one at Cairns Wildlife Dome) so I won't check Marbled off my list. Maybe if someone else ends up going they can record the call to have something more definite, but as of now I'm not convinced.
Like you, I didn't these two species during a regular visit. Tour/presentation would have been nice, but around 2:00 pm I already left Kuranda and was heading to Barron Gorge by cablecar.
FunkyGibbon
Well-Known Member
I want to hear about the Venom Zoo!
Species list by @Najade here: Australian Venom Zoo - Australian Venom Zoo species list
There are also photos in the gallery by @LaughingDove
I've also got a brief bit of discussion about the Venom Zoo from the same visit as the pictures in the gallery in my travel thread from a couple of years ago.
Day 9 - Wildlife Habitat (day visit)
Species list
I'll give a general description of the park first:
The zoo is basically divided into three walk-through main sections (Wetland, Rainforest, Savannah) plus a couple smaller exhibits.
First you enter the Woodlands Habitat which holds most of the smaller birds (finches, budgies, woodswallows, etc) as well as the Northern Bettongs (which you won't see because they'll be sleeping in their hide-outs).
From here you enter the first main section: the Wetlands Habitat. This section houses large amounts of assorted birds, flying-foxes and some fish (the lungfish lives in the middle of the pond and you'll have to be very lucky to see it). Also in here are the photo-op area, the Cafe and a tower with the Billabong enclosure at it's base (Mahogany Glider (won't see them during the day either) plus birds).
A walkway to the left leads to three outside enclosures for 1.) Tree-roo, 2.) Koala, NB Bandicoot (best to look for late afternoon), Rufous Bettong and 3.) Quoll.
Past the cafe there's a middle section with a terrarium that leads to the other two main sections. The Sooty Owls had their own separate enclosure leading into the Rainforest Habitat (Cassowaries and other birds). Half of the elevated walkway was closed for repairs and a terrarium in a small tunnel section contained the Treefrogs. There was also a small enclosure for various herps.
To get to the last Habitat you have to go through a Nailtail walk-through exhibit. In the Savannah you'll find Pelicans, Emus and Macropods and separate enclosures for Crocodiles, Rufous Bettongs and another Tree-roo section.
Species list
I'll give a general description of the park first:
The zoo is basically divided into three walk-through main sections (Wetland, Rainforest, Savannah) plus a couple smaller exhibits.
First you enter the Woodlands Habitat which holds most of the smaller birds (finches, budgies, woodswallows, etc) as well as the Northern Bettongs (which you won't see because they'll be sleeping in their hide-outs).
From here you enter the first main section: the Wetlands Habitat. This section houses large amounts of assorted birds, flying-foxes and some fish (the lungfish lives in the middle of the pond and you'll have to be very lucky to see it). Also in here are the photo-op area, the Cafe and a tower with the Billabong enclosure at it's base (Mahogany Glider (won't see them during the day either) plus birds).
A walkway to the left leads to three outside enclosures for 1.) Tree-roo, 2.) Koala, NB Bandicoot (best to look for late afternoon), Rufous Bettong and 3.) Quoll.
Past the cafe there's a middle section with a terrarium that leads to the other two main sections. The Sooty Owls had their own separate enclosure leading into the Rainforest Habitat (Cassowaries and other birds). Half of the elevated walkway was closed for repairs and a terrarium in a small tunnel section contained the Treefrogs. There was also a small enclosure for various herps.
To get to the last Habitat you have to go through a Nailtail walk-through exhibit. In the Savannah you'll find Pelicans, Emus and Macropods and separate enclosures for Crocodiles, Rufous Bettongs and another Tree-roo section.
Hello Najade, that almost sounds like an unwanted excursion. I would like to see a live nail-tail wallaby and I stroked a stuffed crescent nail-tailed wallaby a few years ago. It's a shame that any conservation attempts to save the species came to nought.
Nah, definitely not. I spent most of my time with the NNs because they were a new species for me. The one's in the walk-through were a bit skittish though. There's also some in the Savannah Habitat that were more eager for a feed. (I think the former were the females and young, the latter the males...)
Oh and I forgot to mention: the Stripeys if on-show would have been in the Billabong enclosure too.
Oh and I forgot to mention: the Stripeys if on-show would have been in the Billabong enclosure too.
So are they normally on show? What's the story there?
Having learned from my previous visits to east coast zoos, I'd called and emailed Wildlife Habitat before my trip to enquire about the species I wanted to see. As the Stripeys were off-show they kindly offered to show 'em to me anyways (shout-out to Bec 
).
When I arrived I first got a bag of roo-food and a Spotters Guide leaflet for my species list. The guides seem to be a bit old and in need of an update (had to work with the keepers to figure out what was still there, what wasn't and what had come in new). After setting a time for my bts-visit (noon) with Bec I was left to explore by myself for a bit. So I had a wander and attended the 9:30am Rainforest & Cassowary feeding tour, 10:10am Wetlands feeding tour and 11:15am Savannah & Lumholtz feeding tour.
Then it was already time to meet the Striped Possum (had it climb around on me) and get a tour of the off-show areas. After that I had a quick snack at the Cafe and then went in search of the animals I'd missed on the first go-round. I got to see almost everything (even the Lungfish which the keepers told me they get to see about thrice a year^^) except the Blue-billed Duck which I forgot to look for and the Mahogany Gliders.
Bec showed me the Northern Bettongs otherwise I wouldn't have seen them either. One had been bts till the day before so I missed out on a close encounter by one day
I did enjoy my visit and stayed a lot longer than I'd planned on (think I left around 4pm).
Animals checked off my list:
Striped Possum
Northern Nailtail-wallaby
My next stop was Black Mountain (close to Cooktown) which is about a 4h drive. As it was already getting dark I saw a couple of owls but could only ID one of them (another one was a Barn Owl-type but drove past too quick...)
There's also free-roaming cows around which you need to look out for. Almost ran into one standing in the middle of the street the next night.
Animals seen:
Southern Boobook
Next up: Black Mountain
).When I arrived I first got a bag of roo-food and a Spotters Guide leaflet for my species list. The guides seem to be a bit old and in need of an update (had to work with the keepers to figure out what was still there, what wasn't and what had come in new). After setting a time for my bts-visit (noon) with Bec I was left to explore by myself for a bit. So I had a wander and attended the 9:30am Rainforest & Cassowary feeding tour, 10:10am Wetlands feeding tour and 11:15am Savannah & Lumholtz feeding tour.
Then it was already time to meet the Striped Possum (had it climb around on me
) and get a tour of the off-show areas. After that I had a quick snack at the Cafe and then went in search of the animals I'd missed on the first go-round. I got to see almost everything (even the Lungfish which the keepers told me they get to see about thrice a year^^) except the Blue-billed Duck which I forgot to look for and the Mahogany Gliders.Bec showed me the Northern Bettongs otherwise I wouldn't have seen them either. One had been bts till the day before so I missed out on a close encounter by one day
I did enjoy my visit and stayed a lot longer than I'd planned on (think I left around 4pm).
Animals checked off my list:
Striped Possum
Northern Nailtail-wallaby
My next stop was Black Mountain (close to Cooktown) which is about a 4h drive. As it was already getting dark I saw a couple of owls but could only ID one of them (another one was a Barn Owl-type but drove past too quick...)
There's also free-roaming cows around which you need to look out for. Almost ran into one standing in the middle of the street the next night.
Animals seen:
Southern Boobook
Next up: Black Mountain
Day 10
Black Mountain
I had two reasons for coming up north: Godman's Rock-wallaby and Bennett's Tree-kangaroo. There's only two places (that I've heard of) where you can reasonably see the Rock-wallabies one of them the viewing platform at Black Mountain itself.
But even being there at the crack of dawn and hanging around for a couple hours didn't yield any mammals.
Animals seen:
Australasian Figbird
Sulphur-crested Cockatoo
Red-winged Parrot
White-bellied Cuckoo-shrike
Silver-crowned Friarbird
White-throated Honeyeater
Animals not seen:
Godman's Rock-wallaby
James Cook Museum
This is a nice little museum ($10 entry/$8 concession). But another one where if you've been once you probably won't need to go again. During the off-season opening hours were only from 10am to 1pm so the visit was a bit rushed.
Cooktown Botanic Gardens
After the museum I had a look around the Botanic Gardens. The visitor centre/cafe or whatever it was was already closed so I just had a bit of a wander around.
Animals seen:
Spangled Drongo
Australasian Figbird
Forest Kingfisher
Bar-shouldered Dove
Green Oriole
Hornbill Friarbird
Yellow-spotted Honeyeater
Closed-litter Rainbow-skink
Black Mountain & Little Annan River Gorge
I had another stop at the viewing platform as well as the second possible spot for Godman's but dipped again.
Animals seen:
Striped Burrowing Frog
Animals not seen:
Godman's Rock-wallaby
Lion's Den Pub
As I'd prearranged a meet-up with Lewis Roberts to look for the tree-roos I went to meet him at the pub at seven. Turns out we'd had a bit of miscommunication and he'd wanted to meet at 7am. So we rescheduled to the next day and I had a bit of a drive around the back-roads to see what I could find on my own.
Animals seen:
Agile Wallaby
(dead Northern Quoll)
Pheasant Coucal
Channel-billed Cuckoo
Papuan Frogmouth
Bush Stone-curlew
Amethystine Python
Animals not seen:
Bennett's Tree-kangaroo
Next up: Shipton's Flat
Black Mountain
I had two reasons for coming up north: Godman's Rock-wallaby and Bennett's Tree-kangaroo. There's only two places (that I've heard of) where you can reasonably see the Rock-wallabies one of them the viewing platform at Black Mountain itself.
But even being there at the crack of dawn and hanging around for a couple hours didn't yield any mammals.
Animals seen:
Australasian Figbird
Sulphur-crested Cockatoo
Red-winged Parrot
White-bellied Cuckoo-shrike
Silver-crowned Friarbird
White-throated Honeyeater
Animals not seen:
Godman's Rock-wallaby
James Cook Museum
This is a nice little museum ($10 entry/$8 concession). But another one where if you've been once you probably won't need to go again. During the off-season opening hours were only from 10am to 1pm so the visit was a bit rushed.
Cooktown Botanic Gardens
After the museum I had a look around the Botanic Gardens. The visitor centre/cafe or whatever it was was already closed so I just had a bit of a wander around.
Animals seen:
Spangled Drongo
Australasian Figbird
Forest Kingfisher
Bar-shouldered Dove
Green Oriole
Hornbill Friarbird
Yellow-spotted Honeyeater
Closed-litter Rainbow-skink
Black Mountain & Little Annan River Gorge
I had another stop at the viewing platform as well as the second possible spot for Godman's but dipped again.
Animals seen:
Striped Burrowing Frog
Animals not seen:
Godman's Rock-wallaby
Lion's Den Pub
As I'd prearranged a meet-up with Lewis Roberts to look for the tree-roos I went to meet him at the pub at seven. Turns out we'd had a bit of miscommunication and he'd wanted to meet at 7am. So we rescheduled to the next day and I had a bit of a drive around the back-roads to see what I could find on my own.
Animals seen:
Agile Wallaby
(dead Northern Quoll)
Pheasant Coucal
Channel-billed Cuckoo
Papuan Frogmouth
Bush Stone-curlew
Amethystine Python
Animals not seen:
Bennett's Tree-kangaroo
Next up: Shipton's Flat
Day 11
Tree-roo search in Shipton's Flat
This time I met up with Lewis at the right time and we headed out into the forest. He'd warned me before that the population had crashed in the last years and that they didn't find them easily anymore and even after hours of searching we couldn't located any roos (didn't even see any droppings) which was of course disappointing. I don't remember when exactly we came back but we were out for at least six or seven hours.
Animals seen:
Paradise Kingfisher
White-streaked Honeyeater
Emerald Dove
Graceful Honeyeater
Yellow-breasted Boatbill
Black-faced Monarch
Pied Monarch
Pale-yellow Robin
Red-throated Rainbow-skink
Animals not seen:
Bennett's Tree-kangaroo
Afterwards I just needed a good shower, some rest and a washing machine for my laundry so I checked into a Motel in town.
While there I spontaneously called up David Meade (guide based in Cooktown) of Great Northern Tours. He offered to come out with me the next day for another crack at Godman's Rock-wallaby which of course I didn't say no to.
Next up: Great Northern Tours - sort of
Tree-roo search in Shipton's Flat
This time I met up with Lewis at the right time and we headed out into the forest. He'd warned me before that the population had crashed in the last years and that they didn't find them easily anymore and even after hours of searching we couldn't located any roos (didn't even see any droppings) which was of course disappointing. I don't remember when exactly we came back but we were out for at least six or seven hours.
Animals seen:
Paradise Kingfisher
White-streaked Honeyeater
Emerald Dove
Graceful Honeyeater
Yellow-breasted Boatbill
Black-faced Monarch
Pied Monarch
Pale-yellow Robin
Red-throated Rainbow-skink
Animals not seen:
Bennett's Tree-kangaroo
Afterwards I just needed a good shower, some rest and a washing machine for my laundry so I checked into a Motel in town.
While there I spontaneously called up David Meade (guide based in Cooktown) of Great Northern Tours. He offered to come out with me the next day for another crack at Godman's Rock-wallaby which of course I didn't say no to.
Next up: Great Northern Tours - sort of